First Australians ate giant eggs of huge flightless birds, ancient proteins confirm

Proteins extracted from fragments of prehistoric eggshells found in the Australian sands confirm that the continent’s earliest humans consumed the eggs of a two-metre tall bird that disappeared into extinction over 47,000 years ago. 

Burn marks discovered on scraps of ancient shell several years ago suggested the first Australians cooked and ate large eggs from a long-extinct bird – leading to fierce debate over the species that laid them. 

Now, an international team led by scientists from the universities of Cambridge and Turin have placed the animal on the evolutionary tree by comparing the protein sequences from powdered egg fossils to those encoded in the genomes of living avian species.  

“Time, temperature and the chemistry of a fossil all dictate how much information we can glean,” said senior co-author Prof Matthew Collins from the University of Cambridge’s Department of Archaeology. 

“Eggshells are made of mineral crystals that can tightly trap some proteins, preserving this biological data in the harshest of environments – potentially for millions of years”    

Prof Matthew Collins 

According to findings published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the ancient eggs came from Genyornis: a huge flightless “mihirung” – or ‘Thunder Bird’ – with tiny wings and massive legs that roamed prehistoric Australia, possibly in flocks.  

Fossil records show that Genyornis stood over two metres tall, weighed between 220-240 kilograms, and laid melon-sized eggs of around 1.5 kg. It was among the Australian “mega-fauna” to vanish a few thousand years after humans arrived, suggesting people played a role in its extinction.  

The earliest “robust” date for the arrival of humans to Australia is some 65,000 years ago.

Burnt eggshells from the previously unconfirmed species all date to around 50 to 55 thousand years ago – not long before Genyornis is thought to have gone extinct – by which time humans had spread across most of the continent.  

“There is no evidence of Genyornis butchery in the archaeological record. However, eggshell fragments with unique burn patterns consistent with human activity have been found at different places across the continent,” said senior co-author Prof Gifford Miller from the University of Colorado.

“This implies that the first humans did not necessarily hunt these enormous birds, but did routinely raid nests and steal their giant eggs for food,” he said. “Overexploitation of the eggs by humans may well have contributed to Genyornis extinction.”

While Genyornis was always a contender for the mystery egg-layer, some scientists argued that – due to shell shape and thickness – a more likely candidate was the Progura or ‘giant malleefowl’: another extinct bird, much smaller, weighing around 5-7 kg and akin to a large turkey. 

The initial ambition was to put the debate to bed by pulling ancient DNA from pieces of shell, but genetic material had not sufficiently survived the hot Australian climate.

Miller turned to researchers at Cambridge and Turin to explore a relatively new technique for extracting a different type of “biomolecule”: protein.

While not as rich in hereditary data, the scientists were able to compare the sequences in ancient proteins to those of living species using a vast new database of biological material: the Bird 10,000 Genomes (B10K) project.    

“The Progura was related to today’s megapodes, a group of birds in the galliform lineage, which also contains ground-feeders such as chickens and turkeys,” said study first author Prof Beatrice Demarchi from the University of Turin.

“We found that the bird responsible for the mystery eggs emerged prior to the galliform lineage, enabling us to rule out the Progura hypothesis. This supports the implication that the eggs eaten by early Australians were laid by Genyornis.”

The 50,000-year-old eggshell tested for the study came from the archaeological site of Wood Point in South Australia, but Prof Miller has previously shown that similar burnt shells can be found at hundreds of sites on the far western Ningaloo coast. 

The researchers point out that the Genyornis egg exploitation behaviour of the first Australians likely mirrors that of early humans with ostrich eggs, the shells of which have been unearthed at archaeological sites across Africa dating back at least 100,000 years. 

Prof Collins added: “While ostriches and humans have co-existed throughout prehistory, the levels of exploitation of Genyornis eggs by early Australians may have ultimately proved more than the reproductive strategies of these extraordinary birds could bear.”   

A new study shows how diet has transformed the ancient dog into a family pet

The shape of the mandible (the lower jaw) is influenced by the mechanical action of the jaw muscles that connect it to the skull, and the mandible shape, therefore, reflects the diet of the animal.

The lower jaw is also sufficiently robust to survive burial and fossilization, providing valuable insight into the diets of animals that are long dead.

A new international study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences has described the shape of 525 ancient dog mandibles from European archaeological sites.

The study compared these 5,000–10,000-year-old remains to a reference sample of modern dogs, wolves, as well as our Australian dingoes.

“Ancient dogs are physically distinctive from those of modern dogs, with the main differences in the curvature of the body under the carnassial (cutting) tooth, suggesting they fed on more tough and hard foods than most modern dogs,” said Dr. Colline Brassard, lead author of the study.

Modern dogs have an omnivorous diet. They have multiple copies of the amylase gene that increases their ability to digest starch—the carbohydrate found in plants such as grains—a trait that has been interpreted as reflecting their living alongside humans and consuming anthropogenic-sourced foods.

Dr. Brassard said it is likely that a shift from a carnivorous diet to the starch-containing omnivorous diet of modern domesticated dogs could explain the changes evident in their jaw shape.

“Somewhat surprisingly, the shape of dingo mandibles did not group with ancient dogs but was instead intermediate between wolves and modern dogs.

The ancient dogs also showed traits indicating they had a greater bite force than modern dogs, which would also have been useful for defence or hunting,” said Professor Trish Fleming, from Murdoch University, who collaborated on the work, comparing European ancient dogs with dingoes.

The dingo was brought to Australia somewhere about 3,600 to 5,000 years ago and it has lived in isolation until about 200 years ago when Europeans brought modern dogs onto the continent.

Dingoes have a carnivorous diet, with their principal diet being kangaroos and wallabies, and they have recently been shown to have a single copy of the amylase gene, supporting their separation from modern dog lineage prior to this adaptation to an omnivorous diet.

‘Australia’s silk road’: Quarry sites dating back 2,100 years reveal a world-scale trading system in Mithaka country

In Queensland’s remote Channel Country of red dirt and gibber rock, traditional owners and archaeologists have unearthed what researchers have dubbed “Australia’s Silk Road”.

The region is archaeologically significant: the landscape has been dramatically altered by a huge network of quarries, which Mithaka people once used to make seed-grinding implements.

While historical accounts have suggested Aboriginal Australians may have lived in permanent settlements, scientists say there is relatively limited archaeological evidence to back this up.

But now, a unique collaboration between Mithaka traditional owners, defence veterans, and scientists is unearthing skeletons and stone circles that experts say may paint a new picture of early Aboriginal lives.

In a research project initiated by the Mithaka people addressing, the results show that Mithaka Country has a substantial and diverse archaeological record, including numerous large stone quarries, multiple ritual structures, and substantial dwellings.

A team involving traditional owners and researchers eventually identified 179 quarry sites, spread over 33,800 sq km – an area about half the size of Tasmania. Some quarry pits are estimated to be more than 2,000 years old.

One of the sites comprises 25,000 individual quarry pits, says Shawnee Gorringe, a Mithaka traditional owner. She describes the archaeological research findings as “scientific validation of something that you already knew was pretty special.”

In December, Michael C. Westaway, and collaborators received grant funding to investigate plant domestication and possible village sites on Mithaka land.

Project partner and lead researcher from Michael C. Westaway said he was blown away by the scale and significance of the Mithaka cultural landscape.

“Mithaka country is in the heart of a massive trade and exchange network, which I have referred to as Australia’s Silk Road,” Dr. Westaway said.

The researchers say archaeological research has uncovered unknown aspects, such as the scale of Mithaka quarrying, that could spur a reassessment of Aboriginal socio-economic systems in parts of ancient Australia.

Australia’s Silk Road

The Channel Country is so named for its intertwined channels, in which monsoonal rains transform from the arid desert into lush greenery. A complex exchange system once operated up and down along these rivulets.

Mithaka land was once at the heart of a vast transcontinental exchange route that spanned from the Gulf of Carpentaria in the north, down to the Flinders Ranges in South Australia – a system Westaway describes as “Australia’s Silk Road”.

“It connected large numbers of Aboriginal groups throughout that arid interior area on the eastern margins of the Simpson Desert,” he says. “You get people interacting all across the continent, exchanging ideas, trading objects and items and ceremonies and songs.”

Grindstones mined and produced on an industrial scale on Mithaka land were exchanged for ochre, wooden objects, stone axes, and pituri, a narcotic. “We don’t really know how far and wide they were being distributed, but they were an important element,” Westaway says.

Some of the archaeological findings are on show in an exhibition touring Queensland titled Kirrenderri, meaning the heart of Channel Country.

Ancient Campfires Reveal A 50,000-Year-Old Grocer And Pharmacy In Australia

For the first time in Australia, archaeobotany has been used by researchers from The University of Western Australia to examine charcoal from ancient campfires in the Western Desert.

Led by UWA Ph.D. candidate Chae Byrne, the research was the first of its kind in the region and examined charcoal from ancient campfires in desert rock shelters to learn about the earliest uses of firewood in Karnatukul (Serpents Glen) in Katjarra (the Carnarvon Ranges) Wattle and other Acacias were found in the oldest archaeological site on the land of the Martu in the Western Desert.

It showed how wattle has defined culture and been important to Australians for over 50,000 years.

“Wattle was critical to the lives of the Martu and essential to the habitability of the arid landscape of the sandplains and rocky ridges of the Western Desert – and it still is,” Ms. Byrne said.

“Then and now, wattle has been used as firewood, to make tools, as food, and as medicine.”

The study confirmed that early Indigenous explorers settled in this arid part of the country, even during changes in climate which saw widespread drought and desertification as sea levels dropped when the polar ice sheets grew.

The study also found that wattle and other acacias have been constant, dependable resources, crucial to the habitability of an otherwise arid and harsh environment.

Ms. Byrne and the research team worked closely with Traditional Owners of the region, who shared their knowledge about the many uses for wattle and other plants.

“I have walked in Country with Traditional Owners who have been kind enough to share their knowledge surrounding the many uses for the vegetation which surround us,” Ms. Byrne said.

“They have taught me that there is a purpose and significance for every type of tree and bush; an ancient grocer and pharmacy which has provided and prospered for tens of thousands of years.”

The researchers sampled trees growing in the region today, which could then be compared to ancient charcoal fragments from campfires in archaeological sites.

“Looking at the plant remains is particularly useful in studying Australian Indigenous heritage, given the persistent importance of natural resources like trees and the rarity of other cultural remains in the deep time record,” Ms. Byrne said.

“There’s so much we can learn from charcoal, not just about the people that produced it but also in environmental science and climate change.”

Ms. Byrne was a finalist in Fresh Science, a national competition helping early-career researchers find, and then share, their stories of discovery.

The study was conducted by the University of Western Australia.

WA Aboriginal site near Rio Tinto mine more than 50,000 years old, a new study reveals

An Aboriginal sacred place located 65 metres from a land bridge used by Rio Tinto to haul iron ore is at least 50,000 years old, with new research finding evidence of occupation during the height of the last ice age. The mining giant, which funded the latest excavation, has promised to ensure the site “is preserved for future generations”.

Archaeological exploration at the site, known as Yirra by the Yinhawangka traditional owners, has yielded stone tools, charcoal and bone which show a 50,000-plus year habitation, making it one of the oldest sites yet found in Australia. The research is the first traditional owner-led, non-mining related, heritage excavation in Yinhawangka country, and the first time Rio Tinto has participated in such exploration.

The initiative is part of the company’s efforts to improve its relationships with traditional owner groups in the wake of the Juukan Gorge disaster, when the iron ore giant destroyed a 46,000-year-old rock shelter against the consent of Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura traditional owners.

A subsequent 2021 federal parliamentary inquiry heard that archaeological work was usually perfunctory, and only done as part of a mining company’s application to destroy Aboriginal heritage sites under Western Australia’s previous heritage laws.

Heritage experts told the inquiry that very few sites were studied in detail before the sign-off to destroy was given. The work at Yirra marks a significant departure from that practice.

Yinhawangka people told the Juukan Gorge inquiry they were concerned for the integrity of Yirra, which was recorded in the WA heritage system but was not a registered site and therefore “unprotected”. The traditional owners said Yirra was very close to a “massive” (110-metre high) land bridge that haul pack trucks used to deliver ore from the mine pit. They said large boulders had rolled onto the site and there was significant soil erosion.

Rio Tinto’s cultural heritage management plan did not provide for any actions relating to Yirra at that time, they said.

Now there are calls for more work of this kind to be done.

“We hope that Yirra will help us tell our ancestral story to Australia and our future generations. We would still be visiting this site if it wasn’t for the mining leases,” Yinhawangka Aboriginal Corporation (YAC) chair Halloway Smirke said.

“All Pilbara groups should have this kind of scientific work done on cultural sites.

“Important sites like Yirra need to be protected, especially when they turn out to be amongst the oldest known places of human habitation in Australia,” Smirke said.

YAC heritage manager, archaeologist and anthropologist Dr Anna Fagan said the study was globally significant.

“This was the first study of its kind to be done, not for mining compliance or heritage clearance, but for Yinhawangka People and Country. The Yirra findings help overturn and reset ideas of desert presence in Australia and I’m confident in global narratives,” Dr Fagan said.

A spokesperson for Rio Tinto said the company acknowledged the significance of Yirra “and is committed to working in partnership with the Yinhawangka people” to preserve it.

“We’ve undertaken a geotechnical study to further our understanding of the surrounds of the site and implemented additional controls,” the spokesperson said, without elaborating.

YAC conducted the archaeological work in collaboration with Archae-aus heritage consultants, and researchers from the University of Western Australia. Archae-aus director Fiona Hook, who excavated the site with her husband, the late Dr Bruce Veitch, and traditional owners more than 20 years ago, said the importance of the site has now been proven beyond doubt.

“When the old dates were returned, I was overwhelmed by emotion. I’ve worked with three generations of Yinhawangka People at this place. It is such an immense relief that we finally got to return to the site and excavate Yirra again after 20 years of waiting,” Hook said.

Rio Tinto said it plans to fund further traditional owner-led cultural research and archaeological excavations.

“This is a wonderful outcome for the Yinhawangka people and we welcome this incredible discovery,” Rio’s iron ore chief executive Simon Trott said.

“These findings at Yirra are a major archaeological breakthrough of international significance, expanding knowledge of Aboriginal occupation in the Pilbara,” Trott said.

Rio Tinto is in talks with other traditional owner groups in the Pilbara to fund further traditional owner-led cultural research and archaeological excavations, a spokesperson said.

Mungo Man: 42,000-year-old Aboriginal remains to be reburied

The remains of 108 Aboriginal people who died about 42,000 years ago will be reburied in outback Australia, years after they were first dug up without permission. These include the remains of Mungo Man, which was famously discovered in 1974 and helped rewrite Australia’s history.

The decision comes after the federal government finalised a four-year-long formal assessment of the reburial.

But some indigenous groups claim they were not consulted in this process.

Between 1960 and 1980, there was a flurry of archaeological finds. During this time, researchers found the remains of 108 Aboriginal individuals in Lake Mungo and Willandra Lakes, part of the Willandra world heritage area about 750km (470 miles) west of Sydney, including the remains of an aboriginal man that was dubbed Mungo Man.

His remains were the oldest evidence of humans living in Australia and the evidence of the first recorded ceremonial burial, a sign that there had been a long history of civilisation as early as 42,000 years ago.

This record was later broken when another 65,000-year-old site was discovered in other parts of the country in 2017.

However, the future of the 108 ancient people’s remains is still a matter of debate.

Campaigners say many remains removed without permission are yet to be returned, with some housed in museums overseas. In the case of Mungo Man, indigenous Australians said the removal of his remains caused great pain.

Reflecting the sensitivity around this issue, Mungo Man was finally returned to where it was found in the first place, Mungo National Park in 2017 after being kept at the storage of the Australian National University in Canberra.

But in 2018 the Australian government decided to rebury all 108 remains – in what they described as an effort to accommodate the wishes of Aboriginal groups.

On Wednesday, the Australian government has finally approved the reburial of the remains, which will be buried at 26 anonymous locations in national parks in the coming months.

“Forty-two thousand years ago Aboriginal people were living – and thriving – on the edge of what was then a rich lakeside. In the last four decades their remains have been removed, analysed, stored, and extensively investigated in the interests of western science.”, Federal Environment Minister Sussan Ley said.

While the government asserted that they had listened to the local Aboriginal community, some of the community members feel let down by the whole process.

Local papers quoting some locals said they felt “bitter disappointment” as not all the owners of the remains were consulted for the crucial decision involving their ancestors.

Michael Young, a Paakantyi man from the community, said the central government continued to make decisions without them, according to an ABC News report.

“It is our place. It is our identity.”

Man discovers “alien” creature’s corpse washed up on Australian beach

A weirdly bloated creature, whose head has been defleshed and body looks more like a swollen, discoloured beast of a myth than anything real, washed up on an Australian beach last week. And though it’s anybody’s guess the identity of the stranded corpse, experts contacted by Live Science have some ideas.

Alex Tan, of Queensland, Australia, was taking a stroll on Maroochydore Beach when he made the startling discovery. Speaking into his phone camera at the time (on April 1), he said, as shared on Instagram, “I’ve stumbled across something weird.

This is like one of those things you see where people claim they’ve found aliens.” The camera then quickly pans away from Tan’s face to reveal the bald, bloated creature with claws, a long tail and an exposed skull. 

In the video’s comments, users speculate that the creature could be anything from a possum (as Tan believes), to a dehydrated kangaroo, and of course, an alien. Wilder guesses on social media include “mini-Chupacabra” or an “extinct marsupial.” 

Despite having mentioned aliens in the original video posted to his Instagram, Tan doesn’t seem to believe the creature has an extraterrestrial origin. “THE PEOPLE NEED ANSWERS. I’m still guessing it’s a possum — my bet of a chicken parmi for any expert that can prove me wrong still stands,” he wrote(opens in new tab) after posting the video.

Tan, in a later interview with the social media news outlet Storyful(opens in new tab), said that the animal had “humanlike hands, a long lizard tail, nose like a possum, and patches of black fur.”

So far, there has been no consensus as to what the creature might be. Russell Bicknell, a marine biologist at the University of New England in Australia told Live Science that he thinks it is either a kangaroo or a wallaby. Whatever it is, he said, is “very waterlogged,” likely having been washed out to sea during recent flooding in the area.

“I’d say it’s a Brushtail possum, Trichosurus vulpecula, that has lost all its fur,” Sandy Inglesbly, a mammalogy collection manager at the Australian Museum, told Live Science in an email. Inglesbly suggests that the skull “certainly” matches that of a brushtail as well as the proportions of the limbs and tail to the body. 

However, this is neither the first nor the last, time an unidentifiable or bizarre-looking creature will be found washed up onshore. In 2013, a 30-foot-long giant squid washed up on a Spanish beach, while in 2020 an even larger one appeared in South Africa. Marine biologists identified the creatures as Architeuthis dux, the largest marine invertebrate on the planet. 

In May 2021, an inky-black fish with gnarly teeth and an appendage protruding from its head appeared on a beach in California; the animal was later identified as a Pacific footballfish.

And in 2015, a 15-foot-long decomposing “sea monster” washed ashore in Maine that was identified as a basking shark.

In all cases, the unidentified monster is always identified. It remains to be seen what Tan’s discovery is, but all evidence points to “not alien,” despite how bizarre the creature might look. 

93-Million-Year-Old “Killer” Crocodile Discovered With a Baby Dinosaur in Its Stomach

Advanced nuclear and synchrotron imaging has confirmed that a 93-million-year-old crocodile found in Central Queensland devoured a juvenile dinosaur based on remains found in the fossilized stomach contents.

The discovery of the fossils in 2010 was made by the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum (QLD) in association with the University of New England, who are publishing their research in the journal Godwana Research.

The research was carried out by a large team led by Dr Matt White of the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum and the University of New England.

The crocodile Confractosuchus sauroktonos, which translates as ‘the broken crocodile dinosaur killer’ was about 2 to 2.5 meters in length. ‘Broken’ refers to the fact that the crocodile was found in a massive, shattered boulder.

Early neutron imaging scans of one rock fragment from the boulder detected bones of the small chicken-sized juvenile dinosaur in the gut, an ornithopod that has not yet been formally identified by species.

Senior Instrument Scientist Dr. Joseph Bevitt explained that the dinosaur bones were entirely embedded within the dense ironstone rock and were serendipitously discovered when the sample was exposed to the penetrative power of neutrons at ANSTO.

Dingo, Australia’s only neutron imaging instrument, can be used to produce two and three-dimensional images of a solid object and reveal concealed features within it.

“In the initial scan in 2015, I spotted a buried bone in there that looked like a chicken bone with a hook on it and thought straight away that it was a dinosaur,” explained Dr. Bevitt.

“Human eyes had never seen it previously, as it was, and still is, totally encased in rock.”

The finding led to further, high-resolution scans using Dingo and the synchrotron X-ray Imaging and Medical Beamline over a number of years.

“3D digital scans from the Imaging and Medical Beamline guided the physical preparation of the crocodile, which was impossible without knowing precisely where the bones were,” said Dr. Bevitt.

Conversely, the fragile samples had to be carefully reduced to a size that synchrotron X-rays could penetrate for high-quality scanning.

“The results were outstanding in providing an entire picture of the crocodile and its last meal, a partially digested juvenile dinosaur.”

It is believed to be the first time a synchrotron beamline has been used in this way. IMBL Instrument scientist Dr. Anton Maximenko assisted the investigative team to push up against the power limits and finetune the facility to successfully scan the large samples.

Dr. Bevitt explained that the team used the full intensity of the synchrotron X-ray beam to achieve the results on the dense rock.

Together, Drs Bevitt and White did all the data processing and importantly, developed new software mechanisms for processing and merging all data sets of this fragmented crocodile. In this way, the crocodile was reconstructed as a digital, 3D jigsaw puzzle.

To confirm the dinosaur was actually in the gut of the crocodile, the team observed infilled worm tunnels, plant roots and geological features that extended between rock fragments.

“The chemistry of rock provided the evidence, said Dr Bevitt.

Investigators think it is likely that the crocodile was caught up in a megaflood event, was buried and died suddenly.

“The fossilized remains were found in a large boulder. Concretions often form when organic matter, or say a crocodile, sinks to the bottom of a river. Because the environment is rich in minerals, within days the mud around the organism can solidify and harden because of the presence of bacteria,” explained Dr Bevitt.

The specimens are now on display at the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum, Winton.